Lost castle solves riddle of Buckton Moor

Jul 21, 2008

(PhysOrg.com) -- A mysterious monument standing on a windswept Lancashire hilltop for nearly a thousand years has been identified as one of England’s most important castles – causing a sensation among archaeologists.

The University of Manchester team expected the mound on Buckton Moor near Stalybridge to be an earthwork of relatively little importance constructed for defensive purposes out of earth and timber.

But to their surprise, the excavation revealed it is in fact a top ranking castle built in the twelfth century, solving a riddle which has intrigued locals for hundreds of years.

The discovery is a significant addition to Britain’s tally of 1,400 castles.

The team excavated a huge ditch and massive “curtain” wall which indicates that it was built by the upper echelons of society.

“The discovery of a high ranking castle in England is a tremendously rare event – and was definitely not what we were expecting,” said the Director of University of Manchester Field Archaeology Centre Mike Nevell.

“It’s been an object of curiosity for a very long time - perhaps going all the way back to a reference in a 1359 survey carried out by the Black Prince – who had just acquired the lands.

“Then it was described as a ruined castle.

“Much of the stonework has been stolen and its walls are overgrown with heather and peat – which explains why it has been mistaken for an earthwork all this time.”

The archaeologists realised they had made a major discovery after excavating the castle’s outer wall - which they found to be made of stone and 2.8 metres wide – a massive size.

They also managed to date some pottery remains which they found scattered on the roadway to the gate house.

“The large scale of the defences clearly indicates castle building at the top end of the social hierarchy “said Greater Manchester County Archaeologist Norman Redhead, also from the University of Manchester.

“We also found that the castle was defended by a large rectangular gate tower – which helps to date it to the 12th century.

“Greater Manchester is not well known for its castles, but Buckton Castle will put the area well and truly on the castle map as it is clearly the best preserved of the eight known castles in the county area.”

The excavation was partly funded from a £300,000 grant by Tameside Council in Greater Manchester.

More questions remain about who owned the castle though the leading contenders are Ranulf the second and Ranulf the third – Earls of Chester who ruled in the 12th century.

One idea is that one of the second Earl of Chester built a castle on the edge of his lands to protect himself from his sworn enemy William of Peveril – who went on to poison him in 1153.

Equally the castle could have been erected during the Civil War of King Stephen’s reign. At this time the Earl was one of the most powerful noblemen in the kingdom and changed sides several times.

Another is that it was built during a period of rebellion against King Henry Second.

The team also want to understand why the castle faced north and west - rather than south where the Earl of Chester’s enemy, Peveril, lived.

Nevell added: “When we return to Buckton next year we’ll hopefully find more answers to these still intriguing questions.”

Related Stories

Why does it seem as if a dark band ripples through a flock of European starlings that are steering clear of a falcon or a hawk? It all lies in the birds' ability to quickly and repeatedly dip to one side to avoid being attacked. ...

For living organisms proteins are an essential part of their body system and are needed to thrive. In recent years, a certain class of proteins has challenged researchers' conventional notion that proteins ...

Good friends may decide to tell you something that is not true but nonetheless sustaining: Nothing is impossible. That was the case of Blue Freedom co-founder who asked his friend if it would be possible ...

A team of scientists have used Diamond to uncover vital new information about the transport mechanism that works within cells, distributing elements to different areas and thus supporting a range of different ...

Say you're out shopping for basic household goods—perhaps orange juice and soup. Or light bulbs. Or diapers for your young child. How do you choose the products you buy? Is it a complicated decision, or ...

Traditionally, to understand how a gene functions, a scientist would breed an organism that lacks that gene - "knocking it out" - then ask how the organism has changed. Are its senses affected? Its behavior? ...

Recommended for you

Certain specimens of the fossil Dickinsonia are incomplete because ancient currents lifted them from the sea floor, a team of researchers led by paleontologists at the University of California, Riverside has fo ...

For the earliest Egyptologists, a trip to the Egyptian Museum in Turin was considered indispensable. The museum's new director is seeking to return the almost 200-year-old museum to its one-time prominence, ...

Working with an international team, paleontologists at the University of Zurich have discovered two new species of Saurichthys. The ~242 million year old predatory fishes were found in the fossil Lagerstätte ...

In the 1990s the discovery of the oldest man made and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons made the Paleolithic excavation site in Schoningen internationally renowned. Contained within the 300,000 ...

Asier Gómez-Olivencia, an Ikerbasque researcher at the UPV/EHU, has led a piece of research that has produced a 3D reconstruction of the remains of a two-year-old Neanderthal recovered from an excavation ...